Pastel Scary

[HR Solutions]

I can't help but notice that whenever I log in to TFSA and go to the "New Posts" icon to check only the new posts - there are SO many queries about Pastel ! I must say I find this quite scary and as every day goes along I am so happy that I do not use Pastel in our Business. I understand that accounting packages have to be quite complex, but it does seem that Pastel is extremely complex and keeps people like Neville in business It does not seem like a run of the mill accounting program.

[lap82]

In Brazil, pastel is a kind of fried panake

[BusFact]

I have my issues with Pastel, but to be fair to them the number of queries may be due to the popularity of the product. The more people who use it the more will be the queries.

Also some of the queries seem quite obscure and not the sort of things most people would come across, eg: networking issues, transferring or importing data, and queries on how to deal with unusual accounting situations.

That said, Pastel make no obvious effort to provide community support in the form of a forum or knowledge base. They do have a pretty effective support centre but only if you pay. So when a user comes across an occasional problem, they have to use Google (which leads here), because who in their right mind would pay for a year's support for one question.

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

Go QuickBooks

[HR Solutions]

Oh yes ..... Quickbooks is a winner for me

[BusFact]

I don't know if its changed, but when I looked at QuickBooks about 10 years ago, there was no simple way of processing settlement discounts. It would have meant me having to generate a 100+ credit notes at the end of each month. It was pretty much a deal breaker for me at the time.

[HR Solutions]

I have no idea about settlement discounts on QB. We don't work that way so it does not affect us. I suppose in your case you would need that

[Dave A]

I don't know if its changed, but when I looked at QuickBooks about 10 years ago, there was no simple way of processing settlement discounts.

It's certainly built into QuickBooks Enterprise, which is what I use nowadays. Not sure about the other packages nowadays though.

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

Its standard, in the receive payments window.
Ive been using qb since about 2005 but would be lying if I said it was definetely available then.
Would be most surprising as thats a fairly common transaction and qb as one the most used packages overseas would surely not miss that trick.
A google search seems to indicate that it was a challenge in 2004/5

[CLIVE-TRIANGLE]

I've used it since 2002 and have acquired every version since then, up to 2014.

Support over the years has become progressively worse. Even 3rd party developers, who were previously fondly embraced by Intuit developers, now find themselves in the cold. Instead of sticking to the QB core Intuit try to do everything and that's where bugs come in.

Right now there are two really bad bugs that there is simply no action or work around forthcoming. Even the latest automatic bug submission has a bug

That said, I personally prefer it to much of what is available and from a cost angle, it is unbeatable.

I do find that letting a bunch of data capturers loose in a QB environment is courting mayhem, but at least there are easy-fix routes if you know what you are doing.

Dave, the one thing that really, really puzzles and annoys me about enterprise, is the absence of the Client Data Review function, which has to be the most powerful tool I have seen for accountants. I just can't figure out why it's not there in Enterprise edition.

I almost forgot, the 2006 versions seems to be the last that featured a condense data function. USA and Canada versions still have it, but RSA zilch, so I assume so too UK. What to do when data gets really large .... if there is a trick out there I would love to hear about it because I have some clients with very large data files that are becoming problematic.

[Dave A]

Dave, the one thing that really, really puzzles and annoys me about enterprise, is the absence of the Client Data Review function, which has to be the most powerful tool I have seen for accountants. I just can't figure out why it's not there in Enterprise edition.

I've been using QB since 1 March 2001, and I have to say feature drift across QB versions and editions over the years has puzzled me too

[CLIVE-TRIANGLE]

What's really surprising is the nature of the posts; really basic stuff.

I'm referring to the software issues and not the accounting issues. Ok both.